Goa oppn protests passing of budget instead of vote of account in curtailed session

Porvorim: The Goa legislative assembly on Monday passed the full state budget and the Goa Appropriation Bill, authorising a withdrawal of Rs 30,194 crore from the consolidated fund. State govt truncated the assembly’s budget session by seven working days, citing the upcoming bypoll in the Ponda constituency as the primary reason for the curtailed session.

The proceedings were marked by a walkout by opposition members, who protested govt’s decision to pass a full budget rather than a vote on account.

Opposition MLAs alleged that the budget was approved without adequate deliberation, noting that 79% of the demands for grants — totaling Rs 23,900 crore — remained undiscussed. The legislative process was accelerated following the lunch recess, when legislative affairs minister Mauvin Godinho moved a motion to suspend House rules to facilitate the budget’s immediate passage.

The opposition MLAs rushed to the well of the House after govt decided to pass the full budget.

Speaker Ganesh Gaonkar directed the removal of the opposition MLAs from the House. When the marshals started to escort the opposition MLAs out of the House, some opposition members sat on the floor, while two MLAs were marshalled out, but later entered the House again.

The opposition MLAs started whistling on the floor of the House while govt passed the budget.

Leader of opposition Yuri Alemao said, “At least take a vote on account. This is the murder of democracy.”

CM Pramod Sawant said that he wanted to pass the budget to take up development works in the state. He said that he didn’t take a vote on account as the model code of conduct would again come into force due to the municipal elections. “This is election year. We get time till Dec and if we want to take up development work then we have to pass the full budget. We will call an Assembly session in Aug, and the opposition can take up the issues during that Assembly session,” Sawant said.

The CM said that he had not done any injustice to anyone and that in the next assembly session they will get an opportunity to move a private member bill and raise the issue.

“The code of conduct which came into force is not in our hands. We have presented a full budget,” he said.

Sawant said that Goa was ranked 2nd in the country in the latest Fiscal Health Index Report 2026 published by NITI Aayog. It can be observed from this report that the state is performing well on fiscal parameters across the country despite having a limited resource base.

“Continuing our journey on the path of fiscal consolidation, I have presented a budget of Rs 30,194 crore with a revenue surplus of Rs 1,666 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs 3,895 crore, which is compliant with FRBM norms,” Sawant said.

He said that, with a heavy heart, he was passing the budget as he could not elaborate on the budget schemes.

Sawant said that while passing the demands, ministers have to give assurance, and if an assurance is given then the opposition will say that govt violated the model code of conduct, and govt does not want to violate the code.

Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai said that 79% of the demands were passed without discussions, and Rs 23,900 crore was passed without discussions.

He asked govt to take a vote on account for four months and return to the House to discuss the full budget. “Passing budget like this is like bulldozing it. Keep some accountability and pass a vote on account,” Sardesai said.

The Fatorda MLA opposed the passing of the full budget and later walked out of the House.